Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 11.djvu/42

 26 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 63, Queen's message, the King replied that he was sovereign in his own realm, that he meddled not between her and her subjects, that he must request her to leave him to deal with his own as they had deserved. This answer was to have been the signal for the advance of the Earls from Berwick. Unhappily either Randolph had secret and separate orders from Elizabeth, or age had dulled his comv age and his intelligence. The Marian spirit with which he had once contended so bravely was again in the ascendant. The old situation was repeated with no sub- stantial difference, yet he allowed himself to be drawn into a private correspondence with Lennox, and yet worse, allowed himself to become his dupe. This true pupil of the Jesuits pretended that no harm was meant to Morton, that the supposed correspondence was a forgery, and the suspicions against him baseless as a dream ; that he was a sincere Protestant, devoted to his King, his country, and the Queen of England. Instead of sending for troops to Berwick therefore, Randolph, to the astonishment and dismay of every loyal English statesman, wrote to say that force would not be needed, and that Lennox's character had been mistaken. Hunt- ingdon tried to open his eyes. The Scotch Commons were the only true friends of England, he said, and no good could come from d'Aubigny. 1 ' By your letter to the Earl of Leicester,' wrote Walsingham scornfully to him, ' you seem to conceive hope that Lennox may be won to be at her Majesty's devotion, which we suppose you 1 Huntingdon ,o Randolph, January 25 : MSS. Scotland,